Strike Up The Band
by Lindsey Grissom
Summary: Five alternative ways that Bernie and Serena might find themselves kissing in the Hospital. There may be spoilers!
1. Going Once

**_A/N:_** _Still don't own a thing!  
 **SPOILER ALERT - IN THE NOTES BELOW!**_

 _This is something_ phantomunmasked _and I came up with when we saw the initial spoilers for next week's episodes. A set of five ways a kiss could happen between Bernie and Serena...of course now we've seen the rest of the spoilers, and THAT article so think of them as alternatives. The intention was to post them as a one-shot of five drabbles, but the word counts kept climbing, so they'll be posted as seperate chapters. Please enjoy!_

* * *

 ** _1\. Going Once..._**

"That was humiliating."

Bernie slides a full wine glass across the table, hardly reaching Serena's place before it's snatched up. "Come on, it wasn't that bad."

"No one bid on me." If she slumps any further down in her chair, Bernie's afraid Serena will end the night on the floor. "Not a single person."

"I bid on you." Bernie reminds her, whisky glass clenched tightly. "Two thousand pounds." All the flexible income she has at the moment, between hotel bills and the lawyers bleeding her dry - but of course, Serena doesn't need to know that.

"And thank goodness you did! I must have looked a bloody idiot stood out there."

Serena's emptied almost half her glass already and Bernie's heard rumours about Serena's drinking but she's never actually seen the woman gulp Shiraz down as fast as this.

"No…of course you didn't, you looked-" _beautiful_ "-great. Fine."

"I looked like my date stood me up at the prom." Serena tips her head back, draining her glass. "Have they been after you for a cheque yet?"

"Yeah. Raf was over as soon as Fletch slammed his gavel down."

Serena nods, sitting up a little to drop her glass onto the table. Reaching beneath her chair, she pulls out her bag. "Here, let me write you one. No point you being out of pocket - you've been enough of a hero as it is."

"No, don't." Reaching out as Serena delves into her bag, Bernie clasps her wrist. "It's fine, really. I was glad to do it."

Serena's free hand drops onto Bernie's, giving it a little rub as she continues looking through her bag. "Nonsense. I was five seconds from bidding on myself anyway."

The pout is back on Serena's face and Bernie squeezes her wrist. She's too close to lose out on this now.

"Serena, I want to do this." Serena looks up and something crosses her face, a smile lingering on her lips. "It's for charity." Bernie adds like a coward, forcing her eyes away from Serena's.

Serena's smile falters, before picking back up a little tighter. "Of course. Well, at least someone here is thinking of the children. You'd have thought that one of these cheapskates could have bothered to front up some cash for me, even if they didn't want to go ahead with the date."

"Serena-"

"Although I'm not sure why the thought of that's so terrible." Serena carries on, finally pulling her hand out of her bag and her wrist out of Bernie's grip. "I'm an intelligent woman, some have said witty."

"Of course you ar-"

"There are much worse things than a night of decent conversation."

Bernie's horrified to realise that behind Serena's puff and bluster, she seems genuinely upset about the night's results. It's hurt her, Bernie realises and wants to smack herself. Of course it has; she'd known Serena was more nervous about this auction than she'd let on. And after all their talks about Edward and his pretty, young tarts Bernie really should have known better.

"Even Hanssen got that anonymous bid for christsake!" Serena's arms sweep up and back down, dumping her bag back on the floor. Her eyes glitter beneath the hall's lights and Bernie can't stand this, can't believe she was so stupid.

"It was me!" She bursts out, louder than she meant to before quieting. "It was me."

Serena blinks. "You bid on Hanssen?"

"What?" _What?_

"You just said-"

Bernie shakes her head quickly. "No, no, not that. You."

"Me? Me what?" Serena tilts her head, looking down at their little table and the small collection of glasses there. "How much have you had?"

"Not enough." Bernie mutters before catching Serena's eye. It's now or never. She was planning to do this at the restaurant, slowly, carefully - after a nice meal. But she can't let this go on. Can't have Serena thinking no one wants her.

Not when, well…

"The reason no one bid on you tonight." She starts, then stops, heart hammering in her chest.

"What about it?" Serena reaches up to rub at the little furrowed lines on her forehead.

"I…" taking a deep breath she reaches for Serena's hand, pulling it down to rest on the table. Serena's thumb starts to brush little circles against her skin and it's so instinctive, so familiar that Bernie's fear lessens just enough to loosen her tongue. "I warned them all off."

The thumb pauses. "What?"

Another deep breath, less shaky this time. "I wanted to win. I- I wasn't sure how to tell you- and then the auction came up and you said you were putting yourself forward and that's…it was so brave, you're so _brave_ , Serena. And I thought, I thought I should be brave too, macho army medic, right? So I figured: dinner, with you. That would be a good time, the two of us alone, outside of work. But then I heard Ollie talking about it and Raf said he'd rather bid on you than any of the others and even Doctor Levy was saying he wouldn't mind spending the evening with you and Guy was…well, you know Guy Self. And…" Pausing to take a breath, Bernie keeps her eyes focussed to the right of Serena's head, not ready to see how her words are being received just yet. "Serena, until tonight I had a grand total of two thousand quid in my account and these guys were throwing around possible bids three times that so I figured I'd need to cheat."

"What…" Serena's voice is barely above a whisper and Bernie waits while she clears her throat. "What did you do?"

"Whatever I had to. Guy has me signing off his charts for a month, Raf just wants a favour to be named at a later date." And Sacha had been surprisingly happy to withdraw the moment Bernie brought it up. "Everyone else was pretty easy to scare off."

"Bernie."

"And I know it's for charity, so I collected their bids anyway, donated it all in your name. The children won't suffer just because I'm a little strapped at the moment. It isn't their fault that I-mmfphf."

The rest of her words are lost against Serena's lips, the soft touch of them suddenly against her own.

She barely has a moment to think, to feel before Serena is pulling back and Bernie finds herself leaning forward, reflexively following after her.

"You're an idiot Berenice Wolfe. Sweet, but an idiot." They're so close together that Bernie's eyes can barely focus on Serena's features but she sees the smile, the smirk and that gentle look she's sure she's caught glimpses of before.

Bernie smiles, closing the small distance between them. "And you have me for a whole evening."

She feels the sharp nip of Serena's teeth on her lip before her tongue sweeps out to soothe it. "Much, much longer than that I should hope."

"Yes." Bernie agrees. _Yes, please._

* * *

 _Thank you for reading!  
_


	2. Two-By-Two

**A/N: Still don't own them...**

 _This one was devised before we knew what the "tragedy and crisis" would actually be. So I pretty much threw a helicopter at the hospital and took it from there! Completely different vein to the last one. Hope you still enjoy and thank you all for reading!_

* * *

 **Two-By-Two**

Serena doesn't know what a war zone actually feels like - and with Bernie running about from patient to patient at her side, she wouldn't dare to make the comparison out loud - but she imagines it's not so different to Holby today.

They've been evacuated off-site twice since the horrendous crash came from the floors above them and the fire fighters still haven't cleared the top two floors.

She's been down to the ED and it's packed beyond capacity, she knows Raf's being kept busy on AAU and every doctor from the F1s to Hanssen are up to their necks in critical traumas.

They've got patients already in for illness and injury suffering all over again with new breaks and smoke inhalation and then there are their own. People she's attended conferences with, head of ward meetings. People she's sung drunken karaoke to and challenged to games of strip-shot poker, all being wheeled past her if they're lucky, some still missing and the others…

Bernie's hand on her shoulder makes her jump and she spins around. "You okay?"

Nodding, Serena reaches up to pat at Bernie's hand, trying not to notice the amount of blood caught on both of their fingers; gloves long since torn off and no one's been round with extras. "Yes, yes; fine. What's next?"

Bernie looks at her a moment longer and Serena finds herself calming a little at the concern on her features, nodding once with a smile. "Alright. We've got a possible crush injury on the way down, firemen are making their way down the back stairs no-"

The rest of her words are cut off as the world explodes around them and Serena finds herself grabbed tight and thrown to the floor, Bernie's taller frame covering her.

The ground shakes and her ears stop working and for a moment all she can take in is Bernie: her forearm against Serena's eyes, her scent and heat all around her and her heart beating at an alarming rate against Serena's back.

And then Bernie's moving off of her and the world comes crashing back into Serena's senses.

Dust, smoke and dull screaming and Serena pushes herself up to her feet, Bernie's hand wrapped around her elbow. There's more smoke pouring out of the stairwell, doors blown off their hinges and Serena's about to suggest they deal with the people caught nearest to them before they're all evacuated out again, when she feels Bernie's fingers slip away from her.

Turning, she lurches forward as Bernie takes off towards the stairwell, long legs leaping over piles of concrete and metal.

"Bernie!" Her voice hardly sounds like her own and she's not even sure she's shouting, except her throat feels ripped open with every repeat. "Bernie!"

Bernie looks back just as she slips through the open doorway, lips turning up in a small smile as she raises her hand in a mock salute. And then she's gone and Serena's left staring after her, breath coming too fast and shallow.

"-ampbell? Ms Campbell! Serena!"

Another touch at her arm and she spins around almost into Hanssen's chest. "We need your help."

"Bernie, she-"

Hanssen looks over her shoulder and Serena watches as something sad washes over his face before he looks back at her. "Ms Wolfe is an excellent trauma surgeon, but she was also a superb member of her majesty's army. Don't forget that she has faced far more dangerous situations than this."

"Henrik-"

"You have patients, Ms Campbell." He turns away again and Serena closes her eyes, taking a deep breath in before heading across the room and towards another casualty.

She reminds herself as she works to stabilise a leg fracture, that Hanssen is right; Bernie can handle herself. She thrives on chaos and danger and there is no one Serena would trust more to handle what is likely to be partially collapsed stairs, than Bernie.

But despite forcing her attention towards the injured people around her, Serena finds it pulled away every time she picks up movement by the stairwell.

Two fractures, one collapsed lung and a head injury she hopes Guy is free to handle downstairs later, and Bernie still hasn't returned.

The firefighters have been slipping in and out of the destroyed doorway and Serena can't tell a word they're saying, hidden behind their helmet's masks, but surely something must be wrong because Bernie should be back by now.

They've got all of the patients moved from the room, the last being ferried out by stretcher behind her and Serena knows that she's needed downstairs. That there are surgeries she should be preparing for and even if she's no longer Deputy CEO she's a damn sight better at organising a panicked staff than Ric Griffin.

But Bernie isn't back yet.

She takes a step towards the stairwell, pushing back the sweaty, sticky mess of her hair from her forehead. She needs to call Jason soon, every three hours they agreed and it must have been nearly that long by now.

She's not sure what she thinks she'll be able to do, more likely to be a hindrance than a help if she's honest but she has to do something and not knowing what's going on, what might have happened while she was busy trying not to worry is driving her insane.

Another step and suddenly there's a rush of movement through the doorway, firemen running back through, one grabbing her by the waist as they pass her and hauling her backwards until she hits the wall.

There's an almighty crash and the crackle of flames and Serena's legs give out beneath her, the body pressed against her all but pinning her upright.

Dark, black smoke billows into the room and distantly she feels the fireman step away from her, reaches a hand back, scrabbling at the smooth walls to find some purchase to remain standing.

She can't look away from the doorway and tugs her arm back harshly when someone tries to pull her away.

She isn't-she won't leave, not before she knows.

There's another pull at her arm, more insistent and she turns her head to snap at whoever is trying to make her leave when she catches movement through the smoke.

She's already running before her mind consciously puts together flashes of dirty blonde hair and that familiar gait and passes her eyes quickly over the man held as steady as possible between Bernie and another fireman. Waving a hand behind her, Serena calls over another to take Bernie's place and hovers anxiously while they hand off, eyes hardly wandering from the woman beside her.

She has small cuts and grazes across her cheek, her scrub top torn across one shoulder. She's covered in dirt and blood, her hair a tangled mess and her eyes blown wide with adrenaline and fear and she is so incredibly beautiful.

Serena would like to pretend she surprises herself with the thought, but she's long since given up that game when it comes to Bernie.

Finally, Bernie steps back and the man is carried away and Serena watches those dark eyes track her up and down, searching out injuries. "You okay?"

This woman, Serena thinks, stepping even closer to her. "Shouldn't that be my line?"

Bernie huffs, shrugging her shoulders. "It was a little touch-and-go for a minute there, but I think he has a real chance of pulling through."

Serena nods. "Uhuh." Lifting her arms, she places a hand at Bernie's neck, thumb pressed to the base of her throat, the other reaching into Bernie's hair. "You scared the life out of me, you know?" Bernie nods, her head jerking between Serena's hands. "I'm going to kiss you now, Major."

Another nod follows a slight pause and Serena lifts up on her toes a little to bring their lips together.

Bernie tastes like ash and her lips are chapped from the dry air, but her hands are strong as they circle Serena's hips, tugging her closer and Serena can feel her heart beating steadily against her chest.

"We need to go." She whispers as they break apart, neither pulling back further than they have to to breathe.

"Patients to save." Bernie agrees.

"And I think we're giving them quite the free show." Bernie's lips quirk up and Serena's never been very good at keeping her eyes away from them at the best of times, but now she knows what they feel like and she leans forward to nip lightly at them. "Come on."

Pulling away enough to turn, she clasps Bernie's hand in her own and starts for the exit. Their fingers tangle together, Bernie's long legs easily matching her stride and despite everything, Serena can't stop smiling.

There's a hell of a lot of work ahead of them, and more besides that needs sorting between them. Bernie's hand squeezes hers as they start down the main stairs, pace stepping up into a jog and Serena grins. They'll manage.

 **End.**

* * *

 _ **Thank you for reading.**_


End file.
